Page:Dictionary of Indian Biography.djvu/401

 SHAH ALAM (1728–1806)

Son of the Emperor, Alamgir II. : born June 15, 1728 : known as the Shahzada Ali Gohar : proclaimed a rebel by his father, and escaped from Delhi to Shuja-ud-daula, Wazir of Oudh : after the death of Suraj-ud-daula (q.v.) and election of Mir Jafar (q.v.), he claimed Bengal, and advanced into Bihar, supported by Shuja-ud-daula : compelled to retreat from Patna : re-appeared on the then N.W. frontier, 1759, and assumed the name of Shah Alam on his father's death, 1759; defeated Ram Narain (q.v.) near Patna, but was routed, Jan. 1760, by Caillaud (q.v.) and Miran, son of Mir Jafar: marched towards Murshidabad : compelled again to retreat : besieged Patna, but was beaten off by Capt. Knox's force : was taken prisoner by Major Carnac, 1761, in Bihar : and allowed to retire to Oudh, Mir Kasim agreeing to pay him 26 lakhs a year from Bengal : after the battle of Baxar, in which Shuja-ud-daula was defeated. Shah Alam sought British protection and made a treaty : in 1765, at Allahabad, he granted the diwani (the superintendence of the revenue) to Lord Clive for the E. I. Co. on payment of a tribute of 26 lakhs a year : in 1771 he found himself under Mahdaji Sindia, the Mahratta, who installed him as Emperor of Delhi : he lost the English tribute : the Rohilla chief Ghulam Kadir seized Delhi and put out Shah Alam's eyes, 1788 : the Mahrattas restored him to the throne : he was taken under British protection after the Mahratta war of 1803 : died Nov. 10, 1806.

SHAH SHUJA (1780?–1842)

Amir of Afghanistan : son of Timur Shah of the Abdali or Durani tribe : made Governor of Peshawar by his brother, Zaman Shah, and in 1803 was invited to the throne of Kabul : met Mountstuart Elphinstone in 1809 at Peshawar, to negotiate an alliance, but was himself driven out of Afghanistan by his half-brother, Mahmud Shah, being routed at Nimla : fled to British territory and became a pensioner at Ludiana. A restless adventiurer, he never ceased to plot to recover the throne. He was defeated by Dost Muhammad in 1833, when making an attempt at Kandahar. The British Government, distrusting Dost Muhummad, replaced Shah Shuja on the throne at Kabul, on Aug. 7, 1839, in the first Afghan war. The British force continued their occupation of Kabul, to support Shah Shuja, but he was not accepted by the people, and failed to establish himself as ruler. After the death of Macnaghten, and the destruction of the British force, he shut himself up in the Bala Hissar, at Kabul. When he left it, on April 5, 1842, to place himself at the head of the army, he was killed at Akbar Khan's instance by an ambushed body of the Barakzais.

SHAHNAWAZ KHAN (1700–1768)

His real name was Abdur-razzak : Persian by origin : an ancestor came to Akbar' s court at Agra : born at Lahore, March 10, 1700, his father, aged 19, dying shortly before his birth : taken by his grandfather to Aurangabud : entered service early : was Diwan of the Berars in 1732 : attracted by his smartness the attention of the Nizam Asaf Jah : dismissed, for siding with the heir apparent against Asaf Jah : while out of employ for six years, he wrote the Maasir-al-umra, said to be the most important historical book produced in India in the eighteenth century, a biographical work on the officers of the Timur dynasty : late in his life Asaf Jah restored Shahnawaz to office, and his successor, Salabat Jang, favoured him more, raising him to the command of 7.000, with the title of Samsam-ud-daula. Shahnawaz was opposed to Europeans, especially the French of Pondicherry. Bussy (q.v.) had him arrested and kept in a tent : while being conveyed to Bussy's camp, he was, in the confusion connected with another assassination, put to death with others of his family, May 12, 1758. The Maasir was completed, with a life of Shahnawaz, by Abdul Hai, the author's son : it is said to contain 730 biographical notices : it was published by the Asiatic Society of Bengal, and contains much information on Indian history of the sixteenth-eighteenth centuries.

SHAKESPEAR, JOHN (1774–1858)

Born Aug, 1774 : son of a small farmer : educated at the parish school, and privately : learnt Arabic with a view to an appointment in N. Africa, but joined the Commissariat, 1792–6 : Professor of Oriental Languages at the Royal Military